Carousel Party Invitations - OTT!

So Matilda will soon be celebrating her 5th Birthday - my word how time has flown.

Anyway, we've decided to tempt fate and plan for and outside party at the Botanical Gardens including a carousel ride on the Gallopers Carousel - believed to be the second oldest steam powered carousel in existence!

And in typical over-the-top-I-can-make-that style I have made invitations for the party with assistance from the birthday girl.

We cut paper, we stuck paper, we cut flags from the scraps and stuck those, we've licked envelopes and found stamps and hope that not too many people will be away for the school holidays!

All paper is by Cristina Re (from Officeworks) and the font used on the invite is Boopee.  The horse was a freebie off the internet with a black line drawn through the middle!

Now to stop procrastinating and finish my wretched thesis before next Monday.

Loving Rita @ Red Pepper

I have been following Rita's fabulous blog (Red Pepper Quilts) since almost the beginning.  She is a prolific quiltmaker and I love her quilt designs and the fabric combinations and the straight line quilting and everything!

Anyway, I was the lucky winner of a Pave the Way quilt kit (including backing and binding fabric). The Anna Maria Horner fabric is gorgeous and I'm itching to get cutting and stitching. So this will be my reward once I've finally finished my Case Study in Transport (yawn)!

I have snuck in a little bit of sewing and finished a couple of blocks for the last month of the Australasian Quilt Bee.

A Rainy Weekend in Melbourne

We had a quick trip to Melbourne on the weekend to meet a new niece / cousin and play tourist!

But before that, I had 24 hours away from the kids to accompany my mum to see her old school friend perform with Andre Rieu!

We had fabulous seats, in the middle of Centre Court at Rod Laver Arena...

...and Mum got to catch up with Gary (although it was brief and the whole time he was being hounded for photos by adoring fans).

It was a great concert and we enjoyed ourselves but I really don't understand the mass-hysteria surrounding Andre.  Nanna's screaming in adoration of Andre, much as a 13-year old girl might do for Justin Beiber - quite surreal!

Trev bought the kids over the following day so I managed an afternoon of shopping at one of the big DFO's and was very pleased to have found a good raincoat for Kelvin - otherwise he would have been very wet over the weekend!!

New raincoat from Kathmandu, grumpy face is models own!!

We stayed in a great hotel off St Kilda Road - can highly recommend it and if you book far anough in advance you can get great room rates.  It's away from the inner city hustle and bustle, close to the Botanical Gardens should energy need to be expended by little ones, right on a busy tram line and the comfy rooms included a little kitchenette.  The only thing we'd do differently next time would be avoiding the cafe at breakfast time - the business suits did not appreciate hungry hypo pre-schoolers!!  Needless to say, Weetbix and milk were purchased for consumption in our room and everyone was happy.

Mirrors on the ceiling of the lift provided entertainment everytime!

We met our new niece / cousin, Maisie.

Caught lots of trams.

Went to the Zoo in the rain.

And had pasta on Lygon Street.

We also got to catch up with Pa (my Dad) but didn't really manage any decent photos!

It was a fun weekend and despite the weather I don't think we'd have done anything differently if the sun had been out.  I love Melbourne as a place to visit but I also love being home and we lapped up the sunshine on Sunday once we were home.

Pedestrians!

Just a quick post so you know I'm still alive!  I'm reading lots of theoretical traffic engineering guff at the moment - with less than 4 weeks to get my case study finished and hopefully a Masters awarded I am head down bum up in the books.

But this I just had to share...

Pedestrians are the world's greatest 'Pythagorians' - always preferring the hypotenuse!

- Professor John Adams

From here

Happy Easter!

I hope the Easter Bunny left his messy magic footprints at your house...

...as well as some chocolaty treats! 

We'll be overindulging on this banoffee pie after a lamb roast with the extended family at lunchtime today.

And I can't resist sharing the curious toddler footprint made this morning!!

Kids in the Kitchen for Easter

I saw this post the other day and knowing the forecast for today was intermitent rain decided to stock up on supplies.

We had friends join us and we got cooking which involved spreading some jam...

...and squishing marshmallows...

...and decorating with melted chocolate and copious amounts of 100's & 1000's...

...and then the all important testing!

I can highly recommend these yummy and easy Easter Wagon Wheels for cooking with your kiddos (and I think the kids would recommend it too!).

Perhaps if your kids are over 5 they may look more like easter eggs than ours do!!

We might give these another go next year - they would make a great alternative to chocolate eggs for extended family and friends and teachers and anyone else you may include on your easter list!!

Wishing you all a Happy Easter and I hope you get to enjoy some time with your families and friends.

Fleetsuits and Unexpected Autumn Sunshine

I have finished another three of these preemie nighties - now known as Fleetsuits (because they are sleep suits for Fleetwood). He is about to crack 2kg and will soon be able to fit into store bought clothing - but in the meantime he's happily clothed in his auntie-made haute couture!!

People have been asking his mum where they can buy these!! Which is a lovely compliment, but there don't seem to be enough hours in the day for everything as it is - although there is certainly the desire to one day get my act together and have a market stall or madeit.com.au shop!

After a week of solid rain it has been lovely to get outside and potter.

Whilst I was hanging out some clothes (and clearing out the backlog from the "Chinese-laundry") Kelvin discovered a bucket of rain water and played for nearly an hour with the water, an off-cut of wood, some fallen leaves and a tomato stake!! 

There were whales, sharks, swimming lessons and seesaws (amongst other things) happening in his big imagination! So delightful to observe.

Tomato Love!

We picked this from the garden today.  I think it looks like a heart.

The kids think it looks like a bottom!!

Either way it should be pretty tasty!!

Toasties Alfresco & Premie Sewing

Our Mother's Group still meet weekly after nearly 5 years.  One of our staple lunches at the playground is toasties.

We cook them on the barbeque.  Public barbeques are free here in Hobart which I understand (from Sarah) is not the same as Melbourne and other parts of Australia where they need to be fed with coins.

Our favourite is ham and cheese slapped between bread and cooked on both sides before cutting and serving to the hungry hoards!!  Although there was salami and chees today and we have had avocado, tomato and vegemite added to the mix at various stages.

Yes, the top left corner on this bbq is the "hot spot"!!

We enjoyed another unseasonably warm Autumn day today in Hobart and loved hanging and eating with our friends.

PS.  Prototype premie 000000+ kimono sleeping bag and matching hat has been finished and hopefully will be tested by my nephew who has moved from the humidicrib to a waterbed this week (and therefore into clothes)!!

Power Plant

Tassie is in the middle of the Ten Days on the Island Festival.

One of the events is Power Plant.  We rugged up and went last night and enjoyed exploring the Botanical Gardens after dark!  Matilda was "so excited" as we walked from the car to the gates.

One of the highlights was seeing a possum trying to relax in a green illuminated pine tree whilst we were waiting to get in.

Possum not shown.

Kelvin loved the snail kaleidoscope, and Matilda loved the illuminated garden of dresses.  Trev would have had aliens leaping out at visitors in the Conservatory and the flames shooting out of the Duck Pond were a highlight for us all. 

Unfortunately no flash photography or tripods were allowed so I can only share my blurry massively long shutter speed photos!!

Although we had an early entry we didn't get home until 9:30pm and the kids were shattered (as was I).  We'd had the forethought to change nappies in the back of the car.  The kids fell asleep on the way home and were transferred to safe warm beds and slept the night away in their clothes!

And Power Plant is a travelling show, so if the show comes to a Botanical Gardens near you - think about taking the smalls, it's good fun for everyone!!

Friday Amusements

Friday's round out a busy week for us.  We have swimming lessons in the morning and both kids are pretty exhausted after lunch after 1.5 hours swimming at the pool.  Matilda has gone from a gremlin (scared of getting her head wet) to a real mermaid and is loving duck diving for things off the bottom of the pool and swimming without floaties, or a board or a mum or a dad!  Kelvin has always loved the water but today he had a go at swimming in our 'playtime' between lessons.  He was popping his face in the water, kicking his feet up and gliding to me.

So after lunch, we tend to have some quiet time (and I often find myself asleep on the couch whilst the kids watch Playschool - but that's another story).  However, today they haven't really wanted the TV on (which is a welcome relief from the guilt of too much TV, but also, when am I going to sneak in my afternoon snooze?).  Kelvin has discovered scissors and can keep himself entertained for the best part of an hour!

He cuts the heads off paper dolls...

...makes 'feathers'...

...and a lot of mess!!

Matilda has also been loving learning her letters at school. She wrote herself a book today, about Clever Cat (the letter 'c') and another book about someone asleep (which includes some funny images of people waking up surprised and yawning)!